Townsfolk Courtesan: Bones 4 Figure

   This past week I painted the "Courtesan" figure from the Bones 4 Townsfolk II set.  This completes this set for me and completes all the Townsfolk from the Bones 4 Core Set.
      I prepped the figure in the usual way, soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then giving it a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying it.  I then glued the figure to a brown-primed 1" fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue, and then placed the figure in my painting grip.

  I decided since it was such a plain figure, I would attempt to do some fancy pattern on the dress.  The figure appeared to look like it was meant to resemble a Japanese Geisha to some extent, which inspired me to want to to try to do a cherry blossom print on it.  So to begin, I Googled "cherry blossom kimono" to get some ideas on patterns.  Also, since I had just done a lot of white fabric on last week's figure, I knew wanted to do something colored on this one, and I picked yellow. 

      I began by painting the skin with Reaper MSP "Bronze Skin".  I then painted the dress with Americana "Primary Yellow", and her hair with Ceramcoat "Black"

     Next, I worked up mid-tones and highlights on the dress using first, Crafter's Acrylic "Bright Yellow", then Crafter's Acrylic "Daffodil Yellow", Apple Barrel "Lemon Chiffon", and finally a little of the "Lemon Chiffon" mixed with Americana "Snow White".  After that, I gave her skin a coat of Citadel "Reikland Fleshshade" wash.

     Then, while the wash was drying, I painted the tree branches on her dress using Americana "Charcoal Grey", and did highlights on them with Americana "Mississippi Mud".   Next, I painted her eyes, and then highlighted her skin with the base "Bronze Skin", and some Reaper MSP "Bronze Skin Highlight".

       I decided at that point that the highlights on the branches weren't light enough, so I added some more highlights with Americana "Fawn".  I then painted the flowers; first doing blossoms with Crafter's Acrylic "Christmas Red", and then giving them centers of Pathfinder MSP "Urgathea Red", then I did more flowers with the "Snow White", and then gave those blossoms centers with Crafter's Acrylic "Tutti Frutti".     Next, I did highlights on her hair, first with Folk Art "Cloudy Day", and then mixing in a little Crafter's Acrylic "Cool Blue", and finally adding in some spots of the "Snow White".  After that I painted the pendant on her necklace with Ceramcoat "Wedding Gold", and then did the pearls on the necklace, and in the center of the pendant, with the "Snow White".   Lastly, I painted her base and the washer with the "Mississippi Mud".
      I let the figure dry overnight and the next day I gave it a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed the figure with Testor's Dullcote".

     I'm really happy with this one.  I wanted to experiment with doing the the shadows, mid-tones and highlights on the fabric simply with paint, instead of my usual use of a wash; and I think it turned out pretty good.  I am especially pleased with how the cherry blossoms came out, although I'm slightly disappointed in the face.